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5 questions for organizer of The Love Summit at Wieden+Kennedy

wieden+kennedy office

Samantha Thomas, organizer of The Love Summit, says environmental sustainability and economic justice begin with love in the workplace. Here, Julia Timmer works as a financial analyst for Wieden+Kennedy in Amsterdam. The Love Summit will be held at W+K's headquarters in Portland.
(Torsten Kjellstrand)

"When we can start treating people and the environment from a place of love, sustainability will be simple."

Hundreds of business leaders and government officials from around the world will meet at Wieden+Kennedy in Portland this weekend to talk about love.

That's right: Love.

The advertising giant is hosting The Love Summit, a conference designed to inspire a culture of compassion in workplaces. The goal isn't just to improve the lives of employees, said organizer Samantha Thomas, but encourage environmental sustainability and economic justice.

The TED-style conference, put on by nonprofit DreamChange, lasts from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. Speakers include Dan Price, a CEO who cut his own pay to raise his employees' salaries, and Dan Wieden, who said he agreed to host the summit because of his friendship with DreamChange founder John Perkins.

Samantha ThomasChris Gampat/DreamChange

We talked to Thomas, who is executive director of DreamChange, about how love can serve the pursuit higher profits and higher purpose. Her responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

If the ultimate goals are environmental sustainability and economic justice, why host a conferenced focused on love?

There are so many conferences educating people about sustainability. I've gone to a lot of these events and they all talk about solutions like using more renewable energy, etc. Those things are all well and good - don't get me wrong, they're very important -- but the bottom line is that we at DreamChange feel that if we don't change the way we relate to other people and the planet, none of that matters.

When we can start treating people and the environment from a place of love, sustainability will be simple and effortless. Recycling, for example, won't be something you really have to think about. Obviously I'm going to recycle my water bottle because I love my environment.

Why are you focused on appealing to business leaders?

I see the tremendous power that corporations have, whether that's through advertising or what kind of products they're creating or selling. They're the most likely candidates for solving issues in the world today in an efficient way. They could really do it the fastest.

We live in a world where 5 percent of us, which is the United States, consume a quarter of the planet's resources. I think that's quite tragic story. What if we could turn that tragedy into the greatest love story? Corporations have the power to do that.

You've said business leaders don't have to sacrifice prosperity to prioritize people and the planet. How are those values compatible?

We're trying to redefine the meaning of wealth. A lot of people think of wealth as paper money. We feel wealth is also our relationship with our family, with our friends, with our significant other, with ourselves. There are so many other things that can make us prosperous.

The way we show these things coincide is through evidence-based studies that show businesses that put planet and people at the same level as profit actually increase their profit. Some examples of that are Whole Foods, Zappos, a lot of other B Corporations.

Why does that model work?

Business is really about the relationships with the people you're selling to and the people you're working with. Making people happy through your operations ultimately means higher profits. Employees are more productive. Customers have good experiences working with you and come back.

If business leaders can be compassionate toward people and the environment and still be prosperous, what keeps them from doing so? What's broken at a human level?

A lot of people act out of fear. I think there are two motivating forces in life: fear and love. A lot of corporations, CEOs and business people act out of fear that there's not going to be enough for them, so they hoard.

People say, 'Isn't greed just part of human nature?' I don't think it is. I think greed becomes a part of us and gets instilled in us when something else is lacking. I think what's lacking in the world is that people aren't relating to each other and the environment like we used to, like indigenous cultures used to, like Native Americans used to.

We're desensitized from human relationship. We spend time on our phones or our computers and we don't spend much time with each other or outside. We constantly want more and more and more -- it's like walking on a treadmill and never getting anywhere -- and it's because something is lacking. It's a lack of love.